Oculus Announces Six Week Sale of $399 Rift + Touch Bundle
by Nate Oh on July 10, 2017 8:45 PM EST- Posted in
- VR
- Oculus Rift
- Oculus
Update: On 7/14/17, Oculus permanently reduced the cost of the Rift + Touch bundle to $499. Meanwhile, the bundle is still available for $399 for the next six weeks.
In the spirit of summer sales and their own “Summer of Rift,” Facebook subsidiary Oculus VR has announced that the Rift + Touch bundle is now on sale for $399. The bundle includes the headset, a pair of Touch controllers, two sensors, an Xbox One wireless controller, a remote, and cables, including connectors for Rock Band VR guitar controllers.
Oculus also offers seven free games for the Rift: Lucky's Tale, Medium, Toybox, Quill, Dead and Buried, Dragon Front, and Robo Recall. For those lacking Rift-compatible titles, these selections provide a simple way to game on the Rift immediately.
The sale will take place for six weeks and follows the permanent price adjustments in March that cut the Rift + Touch bundle from $798 to $598. This competitively positions the Rift + Touch bundle against the $799 HTC Vive headset/controllers bundle and the $499 Sony PlayStation VR headset/controllers bundle. As it stands, Rift’s shipments, cumulatively as well as for 2017 Q1, lag behind the Vive’s according to SuperData, while both are behind the PSVR; at the top of the heap is the more affordable Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR.
According to Fortune, Oculus vice president of content Jason Rubin stated that “This is a good time to test a mass-market price,” where Oculus is considering whether to permanently drop the price. If so, the Rift would finally arrive at the “$350 ballpark” that was originally targeted. As PC-based high-end VR devices, both the Rift and Vive require VR-capable computers, which carry a hefty price of their own.
As a reminder, Oculus offers the following recommended and minimum PC specifications to power Rift:
| Oculus Rift PC Specifications | |||
| Recommended | Minimum | ||
| CPU | Intel i5-4590 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X | Intel i3-6100 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200, FX4350 | |
| GPU (AMD) | Radeon RX 480 / R9 290 | Radeon RX 470 / R9 290 | |
| GPU (NVIDIA) | GeForce GTX 1060 / 970 | GeForce GTX 1050Ti / 960 | |
| Memory | 8GB+ RAM | ||
| Video Output | HDMI 1.3 | ||
| USB Ports | 3 x USB 3.0 1 x USB 2.0 |
1 x USB 3.0 2 x USB 2.0 |
|
| OS | Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer | Windows 8.1 or newer | |
On the HTC side of matters, a new Google Daydream supported Vive was announced only a few months ago, aimed at a 2017 release. Pricing was not revealed at that time.
Time will tell how much the Rift's bundle sale will help bring high-end VR to the masses.
Related Reading
- Oculus Rift Launch Day News: New AMD & NVIDIA Drivers; Async Timewarp & Platform Restrictions Added To SDK
- Hands On With the Retail Oculus Rift: Countdown to Launch
- Oculus Touch Controllers Shipping In December for $199
- HTC & Intel Partner on WiGig Wireless for Vive VR Headset
- GDC 2017 Roundup: VR for All - Pico Neo CV, Tobii, & HTC
- Basemark Releases VRScore, a VR & VR Headset Benchmark Suite for Windows
Source: Oculus (via Fortune)
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shabby - Monday, July 10, 2017 - link
Minimum win 8.1 but win 7 recommended? Fascinating...bigboxes - Monday, July 10, 2017 - link
That is pretty funny.coolhardware - Tuesday, July 11, 2017 - link
Maybe XP would work even better? ;-) lolLord of the Bored - Tuesday, July 11, 2017 - link
98SE or bust!edzieba - Tuesday, July 11, 2017 - link
That's because the new minimum specs rely on the ASW technique, which requires new drive hooks that are only available in newer WDDM versions. Think of it this way: if you're on Windows 7, you need to meet at least the recommended hardware specs. If you're on 8.1 or later, you can drop down to the minimum specs and still get viable performance, which you cannot do on Windows 7.coolhardware - Tuesday, July 11, 2017 - link
FWIW, Amazon has the headset+controllers bundle for the $399 price:http://amzn.to/2sYTNeU (url shortened)
Personally, I will wait for the next version... for basic stuff Daydream (Google VR) works fine for me and I am yet to find a killer app for full fledged dedicated Oculus/Vive usage.
PS does anybody have game/app recommendations for the dedicated headsets?
mhampton - Tuesday, July 11, 2017 - link
Elite: Dangerous.coolhardware - Wednesday, July 12, 2017 - link
Thanks, will check out Elite: Dangerous!milkywayer - Tuesday, July 11, 2017 - link
I'll be waiting for the next model as well. The screen door effect is just too much. Best of luck to whoever wants their hands on this one though.edzieba - Tuesday, July 11, 2017 - link
The big thing you're missing from Daydream is head position tracking. Once you've tried it, you'll never want to go back to orientation-only. Plus visually the experience is a lot worse with Daydream and GearVR (Cardboard is garbage across the board, but everyone knows a HMD made of literal cardboard is going to be awful).